Political Sentiments
by thespeedfxrce
Summary: Andromeda's privilege of silence on the topic of blood purity could no longer be excused and disguised as indifference. Indifference no longer applied when less and less muggle-born students returned to school because they or their families had been murdered simply for daring to exist in her world. Her silence was cowardice.


This story was written for the Semi Finals of the Seventh Season of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. I'm writing as the Seeker for the Tutshill Tornados.

My task this round is as follows:

SEEKER: Les Miserables: a character leaves their past behind and seeks to be a better person

AU - I messed with the character's ages

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the world J.K. Rowling has created. It's all hers, from Diagon Alley to Hogwarts to all the people living there.

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**Title: Political Sentiments**  
**Word Count: 1880**

Andromeda's sixth year started just as any other. Dumbledore welcomes the students into the Great Hall, the new First Years huddled together before splitting off after the sorting, and the Welcome Feast began.

Every year just as the last, but one crucial detail.

Bellatrix had graduated and left Andromeda and Narcissa behind, who was beginning her second year.

Of the three Black sisters, Andromeda brought the least attention to herself. Bellatrix had left her mark at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in more ways than one. During her time there, her striking, curly black hair and sharp features had brought the attention of males, only for her volatile and harsh personality to drive them away. Narcissa's beauty, although still young and innocent, rivaled that of a veela. With her long, flowing golden locks of beach waved hair and small, ski-sloped nose people were more than willing to overlook her demanding, haughty nature. The two sisters had a tendency to voice their scathing opinions, loudly enough to be heard, but quiet enough to remain polite.

This wasn't to say that Andromeda wasn't beautiful - to do so would be a blatant lie. Thick, straight brown hair fell to her mid-back. A straight nose, high cheekbones and pursed lips showcased her features. Her skin was slightly tanned, making her stand out slightly from her elder and younger sister's pale complexions. The most significant difference Andromeda posed to her sister's was her quiet composure.

She hardly voiced her opinions. She hardly considered it necessary. To voice one's opinion would be to search for conflict, or approval, both of which the young Slytherin was unconcerned with. The judgement of her peers was not of the second daughter of the Ancient and Noble House of Black's interest.

Much to the dismay and disgust of her housemates, this included voicing any opinion on muggle-borns. That is until the day Edward Tonks tried to convince her of his worth.

The Sixth Year Defense Against the Dark Arts course was split between two hours of the day. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff in the morning, and Slytherin and Ravenclaw in the evening. For reasons Andromeda couldn't understand, Dumbledore had deemed it acceptable to pair the more docile house with the rambunctious antics of the Gryffindors. Although, she supposed it was better them than her.

Ulick Nott and Mathias Flint sat on either side of her in the class. As Slytherin women got older, the expectation to stay in classes such as Defense was seen as unnecessary and unladylike, leaving Andromeda in a class with only male housemates. The Ravenclaws didn't seem to have this social demand of winding down, but the only ones in her class were hardly worth getting to know. Had Andromeda paid more attention to the social norms of her peers, she may have already been wearing an ancient, family heirloom on her ring finger and would have dropped most of her studies to prepare herself to start a family with whomever promised her father the largest sum.

But, as fate would have it, Bellatrix was to be married that summer and that had satisfied her parent's for the time being. This allowed Andromeda a brief time of peace.

"Partner with me," Mathias said, already standing from his seat to her right. They were expected to practice _Deprimo_ on one another while their professor left the room to grab their graded assignments from his office.

Andromeda and Mathias partnered together for every spell practice. Although she knew he would never admit it, he was more than well aware that Andromeda could hold her own. Of the other Slytherins in their class, she was highest in marks, behind no one but the muggle-born Ravenclaw, Tonks.

In nearly all of their courses, Andromeda and Tonks were each other's only rivals. This unfortunate setback caused her a lot of grief from her parent's and put a target on the muggle-born's back.

"No way," Ulick frowned. "If I have to partner with Parkinson again I'll throw more than a _Deprimo_ at him. He can hardly complete an _Alohamora_."

"Ulick," Andromeda drawled, taking Mathias' extended hand as she used him to help her stand. "There is nothing I would like more than to see you successfully hit Parkinson with a gust of wind powerful enough to send him across the room. While you aren't nearly as incompetent as he, I find it hard to imagine you will find ease in this certain spell." She gave him a sickly sweet smile, "if I am wrong and you do manage to perform on the first try, I will partner with you for the remainder of the term."

Ulick groaned as Mathias snickered unabashedly. "Perform on the first try," he sneered. "I would like to see anyone here do it."

Tired of their conversation, Andromeda walked to the other side of the room, Flint a few strides behind her. Turning to him, she slowly pulled her wand from her robes. She was taunting him, and as he twirled his wand between his fingers, she knew they were both stalling.

Across the classroom, the muggle-born Ravenclaw, Tonks, was preparing to cast. While Andromeda had no problem performing difficult and powerful spells, the muggle-born always managed to get it first, often on the first try.

It was a sort of game Mathias Flint and Andromeda Black played. They allowed Tonks the first cast. If he got it on his first try, which he often times did, they would take what they had seen him do and apply it to their own attempt. If he didn't, they would know what to improve on.

Flint added to this game by cursing Tonks whenever the muggle-born learned the spell before him. Andromeda couldn't be troubled to join him, but she also couldn't be bothered to stop him.

Lifting his wand, the Ravenclaw in question began his cast. A sharp flick and thrust forward sent a gust of wind to the stomach of a Ravenclaw girl. She scattered backwards, trying to keep her balance.

Andromeda didn't watch to see if she fell, her wand was no trained on Mathias. Clear as crystal, she called out the spell. A forceful burst of wind hit Flint square in the chest and sent him 15 feet across the room, landing right on top of where the Ravenclaw girl fell.

She would have laughed if it wasn't for the look of rage on Mathius' face. Before she could reprimand him for his unnecessary show of emotion, the girl underneath him zapped him with some short of jinx. "_Bloody mudblood_," he growled.

"_Mathias_," Andromeda snapped. "You'll lose us points."

"Get _off_!" She shrieked, pushing Flint onto the floor. Then, in a turn of events, Andromeda found herself at the end of her wand. "You did that on purpose, inbreed." She took a threatening step forward. "You pretend to be above blood politics, but you're just as bad as the rest of them."

Before the girl that she now recognized as muggle-born Julia Steinbeck could utter a word, Andromeda flicked her wand and muttered, "_langlock_." The Ravenclaw's tongue fused to the roof of her mouth, leaving her mute. "Do not be so self-absorbed as to think you would be on the receiving end of one of my curses. To do so would be to assume I cared enough to put you there to begin with."

It was not often that Andromeda found herself so wound up, but tensions were rising in the wizarding community as a dark wizard began to rise to ranks. She was filled with an uncharacteristic rage at the boldness of the half-blood in front of her. Andromeda had carefully crafted an outward appearance of indifference her entire school career, and now that lines were being drawn in the sand, she was assumed to be on one side over the other due to her house and familial relations. There was nothing at enraged her more than to be made an example of political tensions and to have her heritage used against her.

The classroom was at a standstill, no one but Tonks daring to move as he went to kneel beside his partner.

Mathias stood beside her, wiping imagined dust from his trousers. "You'll regret that," he snarled to the voiceless girl at their feet. He raised his wand, but Andromeda put a hand on his wrist.

"I believe you have embarrassed yourself enough, Flint." She said in a cold, hard voice.

"_Me_?"

She turned to him sharply. "You did land on top of her, didn't you? Or was I mistaken and it was some other imbecile I sent through the air." Andromeda rarely insulted another student publically, but she never spoke so harshly to a fellow Slytherin, and a pureblood one at that. She hadn't realized what she had done until she noticed Mathias' eyes widen almost comically large in shock before they narrowed sharply.

Glancing around the room of stunned onlookers, her eyes found the pitying hazel eyes of her academic rival, Edward Tonks. There was a flash of something akin to pride in his eyes that made her nauseous. It was a look she had seen in his eyes on more than one occasion since she first publicly disavowed the use of the term _mudblood_ in a spat with her elder sister the previous year. Since then he had believed them to be in some sort of alliance.

It took all the strength she could muster to turn and walk out of the room. It wasn't until the door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom slammed behind her did she allow herself to run.

Her world was changing. No, it already had. Bellatrix was certain to take the mark as soon as she was married to Lestrange and whoever her parent's deemed a good match would surely take it as well, if they hadn't already.

Her stomach churned and twisted painfully as she rushed down the corridors, no true destination in mind. They had overreacted. Andromeda and Julia Steinbeck.

Julia was wrong to have politicized what was simply a coincidence, and Andromeda was wrong to have taken the bait of her harsh words.

But she was also right. Andromeda's privilege of silence on the topic of blood purity could no longer be excused and disguised as indifference. Indifference no longer applied when less and less muggle-born students returned to school because they or their families had been murdered simply for daring to exist in her world. Her silence was cowardice.

When Tonks found her by the Black Lake, she knew he knew this, too. But as he had the other times he found her in quiet contemplation, he didn't say anything. He only sat beside her and offered her the only gift she would accept. Company.

When he stood to leave her, he broke the one rule they had ever had. Acknowledgement. Extending his hand, he acknowledged her in a way he was otherwise not allowed to do.

She studied him. Soft, hazel eyes offered her more forgiveness than she could ever wish to receive. In what she would insist was a moment of weakness, she took his hand in hers and succumbed to the self-indulgent tenderness that would change the course of her life as she knew it.


End file.
